As the promotion for the latest Star Wars movie goes into hyperdrive the role of the corporate accelerator – programmes run by corporate to help startups become mature companies – is suddenly in the spotlight.
BB-8, the droid in Star Wars’ The Force Awakens, has catapulted venture-backed robot ball company Sphero to the top of the media agenda, and it all dates back to the time the startup spent on the Disney Accelerator powered by Techstars.
The hottest toy this Christmas is coming out after a meeting Sphero secured with Disney chief executive and chairman Bob Iger as part of the Techstars programme. During the conversation it became evident that one of the planned Star Wars robots was a robot ball, and Sphero became its obvious maker.
The moment BB-8 went on sale, priced at $150, Sphero told Bloomberg it had begun selling 2000 robots per hour, and in one month the company has nearly matched its entire 2014 revenues. The Financial Times pegged 2014 revenues at $20m and before BB-8 came out the business had sold 500000 robots over four years. It was already a mature business to be going through an accelerator – but its success since has been stellar.
The overnight transformation of the robot ball company is likely to fuel greater interest in the potential of the Disney accelerator and other corporate accelerators. Accelerators typically work by providing training and mentoring for entrepreneurs in an intensive period of time. Corporate accelerators have the potential added benefit of providing entrepreneurs with the understanding of the corporation supporting the accelerator, and the possibility of securing some form of strategic partnership.
Yet the kinds of wins had by BB-8 are hugely important for a part of the corporate venturing market where success stories are limited, and many believe the area is high on hype. It is common for corporate accelerators to be started amid heady optimism, but for the projects to fall out of favour and be closed relatively quickly, as the mixing of large corporate executives with early stage entrepreneurs is hard to do effectively for both sides.
Clearly the story of Sphero indicates the right circumstances can help start-ups form a corporate relationship of significant importance. Star Wars is expected to make $9.6bn, according to Bloomberg, of which $5bn is set to be made by merchandise. The literal poster child of this merchandise is BB-8, and Sphero is telling media it is “printing money”.
Those in the corporate accelerator world should be cheering on the little robot ball when they go to see The Force Awakens – it has brought harmony to the corporate accelerator galaxy.